Tommy Dreamer and KiLynn King recount King’s IMPACT signing.
On March 15th, it was revealed that KiLynn King signed an exclusive deal with IMPACT Wrestling. The next day on IMPACT on AXS, King and Taylor Wilde’s Knockouts Tag Title win aired. They bested Death Dollz (Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie) to become champions.
King detailed receiving the contract offer as she was speaking to Tommy Dreamer on his House of Hardcore Podcast. She had tryout matches and got the call a week or so afterwards while at the gym. Dreamer mentioned that King had been under contract but she did not let any information slip out.
Dreamer: It wasn’t very long before that where you were a very good kept secret (at IMPACT Wrestling) that you were hired and under contract so you learned how to keep your mouth shut. Again, how you were brought up. You didn’t post stuff on social media, you had your tryout. You did two matches. How long before they offered you a contract? I don’t remember.
King: So I wanna say it was about a week or two after the tryout matches. It wasn’t very long. I do remember it was less than a month so I wanna say it was about two weeks. I remember I was at the gym when I got the phone call and Gail (Kim) was like, ‘Hey, I need to talk to you’ and I was like, ‘Okay’ and she started laughing. She’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m just out of breath. I was just doing cardio’ and she’s like, ‘Do you want me to call you back?’ I said, ‘No, it’s fine.’ She’s like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna call you back with Tommy’ and I was like, ‘Okay.’ So yeah, it was really cool because my other half had just picked me up from the gym and he’s been with me on this journey for the last four years watching me bust my butt and experience disappointment and failure and then success and then cry and the whole cycle of it all. He’s witnessed it all and so as I was getting in the car with him, we were driving and that’s when I was on the phone with both of you and you guys just let me know, I was like, ‘This is cool. This is really, really cool’ so yeah, it was one of those things where it’s like, Gail doesn’t call me very often so pick up the phone (she laughed).
Following up on that, Dreamer shared that there was a vote held amongst backstage personnel about signing KiLynn.
Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore asked those in the room and it was unanimously agreed upon that she should be brought in. Dreamer recounted how excited both him and Gail Kim were to inform KiLynn of the news and they wanted to do it together.
Dreamer: The behind the scenes (of KiLynn King being signed to IMPACT Wrestling), Scott (D’Amore) was just like, ‘Hey, what do you wanna do?’ Kind of like a hiring process and we all vote, we’re like, ‘Yeah, we should hire her.’ Kind of casual and then we go off and we private… We (Dreamer & Gail Kim) were both as excited I’m sure as you were to get the call. We have never dual called anybody to hire them and I was just like, ‘Listen Gail, I’ve known this girl a long time. I wanna be the one.’ She’s like, ‘I wanna be the one to hire her’ and she was like, ‘Can we do it together?’ And I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ So we called you like two giddy school children telling good news to a fellow person that hey, this is happening for you. We’d love to have you on board, blah, blah, blah.
King was able to check off two goals. She wanted to get signed to a company and become a champion in said company that she was signed to.
King: Two of my biggest goals that I set for myself in 2023 was I wanted to become a contracted talent and I wanted to become a champion of whatever company I was contracted to. So, I think we’re starting off (good). I did that in the first night (at IMPACT Wrestling) so yeah…
This week’s edition of IMPACT on AXS is featuring ‘Never Before Seen’ matches and Miyu Yamashita’s debut as the lead-in for the joint show with New Japan Pro-Wrestling titled Multiverse United.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the House of Hardcore Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
